Ciena Corporation

Stephen Kieran Anthony Adolph

Ronald Arthur Frank

Barry Leo Pelley

Germain Paul Bisson

Stephen Knobel

Jim Chi-Luen Yau

Marvin Jake Wiebe

Phuong Lethebinh

An apparatus and method for detecting and suppressing corrupted data frames transported from a SONET network to a receiver utilizing the SOF frame indicator to manage the buffer-to-buffer credit count. By verifying the integrity of the SOF frame indicator prior to forwarding it to the client receiver the apparatus and method ensure that the buffer-to-buffer credit count integrity is maintained while avoiding the introduction of latency.

Apparatus and method for efficient detection and suppression of corrupted fibre channel frames in a protected transmission medium

Service path protection is provided for packet-based data services (e.g. GbE or FC) by making available to a protected service, as and when needed, preemptable (i.e. sharable) transport bandwidth (e.g. STS-1s for a SONET network) used, under normal conditions, to transport other data services. Each client-based service path is defined by a selectable working path when service protection has not been initiated for that service path and each working path comprises a selectable bandwidth, selectable portions of which are designated as unpreemptable and/or preemptable, whereby the preemptable bandwidth portions are made available for protection preemption by different service paths. A protection path is assigned to each protected service path, whereby each protection path comprises a selectable bandwidth having preemptable bandwidth portion(s) of working path(s) defining different service path(s) and/or unused network bandwidth. In response to a protection switch request the protected service path is switched so that it is defined by the protection path assigned to it, thereby preempting the preemptable bandwidth portion of the protection path for use by the protected service path. The working path bandwidths are selected on a dynamic basis in response to available network bandwidth so as to maximize the use of network bandwidth by the working paths.

Service protection method and apparatus for TDM or WDM communications networks

A method and apparatus are provided for flexible time-division multiplexing, and demultiplexing, of serial line data, from 1-n client lines, based on the SONET standard (e.g. OC-48 or OC-192) whereby a predetermined and reconfigurable number of STS-1s are allocated to each client. A multiplexer includes 1 to n mappers for mapping the data of 1 to n clients, according to a predetermined bandwidth allocation, to an N&#xd7;STS-1 SONET payload, each mapper using y STS-1s where y is 0 to N, the y STS-1s being selected on a sequential or non-sequential concatenation basis from the N STS-1s. Each mapper maps the data of one client and each allocated STS-1 is allocated to one client and the total number of STS-1s allocated to the clients is less than or equal to N. An aggregator aggregates the mapped data into a composite STS payload comprising N STS-1s. A bandwidth allocation receiver receives the bandwidth allocation. The bandwidth allocation may be received from a source external to the multiplexer and the source may be a network controller. A demultiplexer includes a deaggregator for deaggregating the STS payload to provide the mapped data for the clients. 1 to n demappers demap the client data according to the predetermined bandwidth allocation. A bandwidth allocation receiver receives the bandwidth allocation.

Flexible multiplexer/demultiplexer and method for transport of optical line data to a wide/metro area link

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Ottawa, Canada

Stephen Kieran Anthony Adolph